Billing fraud and deception to hide their botched “repair”
I strongly advise against taking any vehicle to North Mountain Auto. On 04/08/2026, I brought my 1996 Ford Probe GT to this shop for a water pump replacement. Dashcam footage explicitly shows the vehicle running perfectly fine that morning while it was at another shop receiving an estimate. It was dropped off at North Mountain Auto two hours later. On 04/13/2026, the vehicle was pulled into their bay exhibiting no problems, yet it exhibited severe running issues immediately after their "repair." The vehicle was subsequently removed to a neutral third-party shop via a recorded and documented chain of custody on 04/27/2026, ensuring no claims of tampering could be made. Independent diagnostics have since confirmed catastrophic engine failure, including air passing through the piston rings and a 25% leakage around the exhaust valve on Cylinder 5.
Far more concerning than the mechanical destruction is the actively documented fraud and attempted cover-up. Forensic dashcam video and telemetry data captured the shop engaging in billing fraud by charging for one type of product (Asian vehicle blue coolant) while explicitly using another (Orange OAT Coolant; see Image 3). Furthermore, on 04/20/2026, approximately an hour before I arrived to pick up the vehicle, the mechanic is recorded stating to the front desk that he had already lost two days the prior week and five hours that current day on the car and was "done." Twenty minutes later, footage shows them manually overriding factory settings via the base idle set screw (BISS; see Image 5) in a deliberate attempt to hide over 30 documented engine stalls and doctor the vehicle just enough to collect payment. This override occurred on four separate occasions.
Additionally, Image 4 shows the intake plenum was removed. There is absolutely no reason for its removal during a water pump replacement other than assessing internal damage; it provides no extra room or access and is 100% unnecessary. Both the mechanic and the shop stated they hadn’t "worked in that area," claiming the damaged wires and broken clips had nothing to do with their work, which the visual evidence explicitly contradicts.
When the shop realized my dashcams automatically trigger upon movement or when the key is turned, they attempted to format the memory cards twice while the car was sitting in their bay: once on April 15th, and again after hours following a "stealth" repair on 04/22/2026. This constitutes direct spoliation of evidence to cover up their actions. When I reached out via text message, they immediately denied warranty coverage, blamed the car, and then blamed me. However, until this week, they had no knowledge that the dashcam footage was NOT actually deleted. If you’re going to perform such acts, you may want to research the specific dashcam to know how to format it. Just saying.
I have retained a 236GB forensic data drive documenting every action taken in their bay. Now that every legal and regulatory action has been filed and is underway, I am leaving my experience here to help prevent others from suffering the same fate. Do not trust this shop with your property.